Benchslaps

Why The DOJ Got Benchslapped In Austria: A Conversation With FCPA Blog’s Richard Cassin

Columnist Zach Abramowitz chats with Richard Cassin of the FCPA Blog about how the DOJ got benchslapped -- for fabricating evidence.

By Zach Abramowitz on June 10, 2015 5:59 pm
If an Austrian judge were to benchslap the lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly fabricating testimony and no one noticed, then did it really happen?

Last month, the New York Times reported that the DOJ had failed in its attempt to extradite Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash on FCPA charges alleging that Firtash had bribed Indian officials to the tune of $18.5 million for mining rights. Two things stood out in the story. First, Judge Christoph Bauer found that the charges were politically motivated, which has some lamenting the DOJ’s broad overreach.  Plus, per the Times, Judge Bauer accused the United States government of fabricating testimony, questioning whether the so-called witnesses that the U.S. failed to produce (they could produce only affidavits) even existed.  The irony of the DOJ alleging corruption while being accused of fabricating the existence of witnesses is hard to miss.

This is not exactly the kind of story that makes its way around Facebook, possibly because it was not titled “US Tries to Extradite Oligarch, and You’ll Never Guess What Happens Next.”  To help give context to this story, I’ve invited Richard Cassin, founder and editor of the FCPA Blog, to answer a few questions.  Richard has written for the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times and is frequently quoted on FCPA matters by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, FoxNews, CNN and a host of other notable publications.

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Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at [email protected].